Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said India’s biotech sector has taken a spectacular 8-fold jump from $10 billion to $80 billion in the last 8 years.
Addressing the Biotech Startup Expo 2022. It will strengthen the Aatmanirbhar Bharat movement in the sector. https://t.co/GN0sv2PdRP
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 9, 2022
Inaugurating the Biotech Startup Expo – 2022 at Delhi’s Pragati Maidan, PM Modi said, “India is not too far from reaching the league of top-10 countries in Biotech's global ecosystem.”
“We are seeing the same respect and reputation for our Biotech sector and for the Bio Professionals of India as we saw for our IT professionals at the global stage in the past decades,” he remarked.
PM Modi said that unprecedented steps are being taken for the development of the biotech sector which are clearly manifested in the start-up ecosystem.
“In the last 8 years, the number of start-ups in our country has increased from a few hundred to 70,000 covering 60 different industries. More than 5,000 of these start-ups are associated with biotech. Every 14th start-up in the biotechnology sector and more than 1,100 such biotech start-ups emerged in the last year itself,” the Prime Minister informed.
Further talking about the shift of talent towards biotechnology, the Prime Minister said the number of investors in the biotech sector has risen by 9 times and biotech incubators and funding for them has increased by seven times. The number of biotech incubators have gone up from six in 2014 to 75 now. The number of biotech products has also increased from 10 to more than 700 today,” he pointed out.
PM Modi also launched a biotech products e-portal. Union Ministers Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Dr Jitendra Singh,, various experts, SMEs and investors were among those present on the occasion.
The Prime Minister also noted the contribution of the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) in the development of the sector in the country.
Pm Modi explained that there were five major reasons why India was being considered a land of opportunities in the field of biotech. First- diverse population and diverse climatic zones, Second- India's talented human capital pool, Third- increasing efforts for ease of doing business in India. Fourth- The demand for Bio-Products is increasing continuously in India and fifth- India's Biotech Sector and its track record of success.
The Prime Minister said that the government has worked tirelessly for improving the potential and power of the Indian economy. He pointed out that there is an emphasis on ‘whole of the government approach’. Mantra of Sabka Saath-Sabka Vikas is applicable to all the different sectors of India also, This has resulted in a reversal of the scene whena few selected sectors were focused upon and others were left to fend for themselves, he added.
The Prime Minister said in order to transcend a government-centric approach, the government is encouraging a culture of providing new enabling interfaces. Platforms like BIRAC are being strengthened and many other sectors are seeing this approach.
The Prime Minister said, “the biotech sector is one of the most demand driven sectors. The campaigns for ease of living in India over the years have opened up new possibilities for the biotech sector.”
Developments in health, agriculture, energy, natural farming, bio fortified seeds are creating new avenues for the sector, he concluded.
Also read: PM Modi rolls out Jan Samarth Portal for easy govt loans to students, farmers and businesses
